Mixed Media Sunrise

ABEAUTIFUL ORANGE-RED SUN peeks over the frost-covered hedges as I mount my bicycle. My AirPods peep out from under my woollen headband. As I kick off, I double tap my right AirPod and the nasal voice of Stephen King picks up the story where he left it yesterday evening: “The Wind Through the Key Hole” - The Dark Tower part 4.5.  I am on my way to the school where I teach English, half an hour’s ride eastwards, and I am gradually drawn into gunslinger Roland’s Midworld.

I gain speed as the familiar landscape around me seems to melt into the barren landscape from the novel. How does Stephen King do that? His voice is distinct, but not very outspoken. Apart from that, he has a curious way of pronouncing the letter ‘l’. It is almost as if he produces a kind of glottal stop each time this letter turns up. This does not distract the reader from the story, though. Far from it: being the author he knows exactly how his own story is set up, of course. And he displays some acting talent in his representation of the characters. Didn’t he also make a cameo appearance in the movie “IT - part 2”? Anyway, the sum of it all is that his story is enhanced with something special. And it is this extra touch that makes listening to an audiobook so rewarding for me. Of course, I am in love with books — I am an English teacher, right? But in the course of the years I have discovered that using ‘mixed media’ definitely enriches my reading experience. Provided of course that the performing artist knows how to read out loud. Just like writing, reading out loud is an art that many aspire to, but only few master. And King happens to be a very good reader.

My first introduction to the term ‘mixed media’ dates back some 25 years ago, when I started out as a publishing editor at a large publishing firm of school books. Having been trained as a teacher, I had some definite ideas about how to explain the passive, relative clauses and character development in a novel. But long sessions with creative authors, test schools and IT architects showed me that a paper book alone is not enough to master a new language. Let alone to motivate teenagers. The combination of ‘folio and digital’ turned out to be much more effective — and much more fun besides that. This sounds like kicking in an open door now, I know; but back in the day it really was an eye opener to me.

Another revelation in those days came from a colleague who explained how she passed the time during her long car rides. Our firm was based up north which meant driving quite some distances to reach potential customers. And she passed the time behind the wheel by listening to books on tape. I was hooked immediately as soon as I started listening to my recordings of the BBC radio play of “Lord of the Rings”. Who cared that some parts of Tolkien’s magnus opus were skipped to fit everything into thirteen one-hour episodes; the radio play was, and still is, fascinating. So much so that I would even take the occasional detour to finish an episode. Only to end up at home in the evening and fetch the paper book and pick up on the missed details at night.

Multimedia developed throughout the years, and I lost my interest in publishing. My love for education, however, was rekindled during my numerous visits to schools and classrooms. So when I eventually returned to those classrooms as a teacher, I took my mixed media experiences with me and tried to enrich my lessons with sound and vision. In doing this, I discovered that present day schoolkids know much more about combining media than I did, of course. And that turned out to be exactly the extra challenge I missed in my earlier days as a teacher. Nowadays my students show me the world of new films, games and lyrics - and I show them the world of e-readers and good old paper books that tell the same story - but also leave room for your own imagination. And where shall the twain meet? For me, somewhere between my house and my school, on an early winter’s morning, with the sound of Stephen King’s voice accompanying the sun as it rises over the frosty hedges.

Frank Volmerink (1966) taught English before becoming a publishing editor at Wolter-Noordhoff. He published teaching materials for twelve years, after which he returned to his original passion: teaching English—and especially English literature. He lives in Velp, Gelderland, the Netherlands, with his wife and has two sons and a daughter.